Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-19


announces herelf to be no longer IN
experiment to be critically touched with
the tips Of the fingers, but an empire to
be respected. The wild west Of lawiess
customs and coyotes, the savage frontier
Of hostile Indians and murderous stage
robbers has travelled beyond her
borders, which now enclose six hun
dred thousand peaceful and intelligent
citizens. But sixteen years ago, where
Bismarck, the capital city, now stands,
a portion of the Seventeenth u. s. In
fantry and the famous Seventh Cavalry
under the gallant Custer were stationed.
They constituted the advance guard Of
the Northern Pacific Railroad and rep
resented the extreme limit to which
daring enterprise had pushed its way.
Daily skirmishes occurred with hostile
savages on ground now crossed and
recrossed by railroads and telegraph
lines.
A cursory view from a railway train,
a stop for a week or two in some town,
or even a visit to a bonanza farm does
not constitute data for reliable informa-
ton. No mar or oma who has not
passed at least a year in Dakota, should
pretend to sufficient knowledge to dis
cuss her present md future, or bewilder
a confding public with hastily formed
views, either enthusiastic or forebod-
ing. The glory Of her summer or sunny
days and cool nights the splendor Of
her autumns and winters, brilliantly
clear and charged with consumption
proof ozone, must be seen, felt, and
breathed to be understood. 1t is only
through residence hat one notes the
absence Of disease, the i%nfrequency of
death, and the freedom from the har-
rowing and asthmatic coughs of the
s%eacoast, On the one hand, and the in
land malarial fogs and damps with their
billious-skinned, blue-nosed victims on
the other.
Although since January, 1886, nearly
two hundred thousand people have been
added to the population of Dakota, there
still remains 90 900 acres of land to
be given away, to which many millions
will be added when the Sioux reserva-
ton is opened to settlers. The smooth
open prairie is the paradise of the
thrifty agriculturist, and the rich soil of
the Red River valley in the northwest,
and the central and southeastern por-
tions are peculiarly adapted for diversi-
fed farming, while the grazing lands of
the Missouri Valley and Black Hills
district are bringing Dakota into COM
petition with Montana as a cattle grow
ing country. Covering such a wide
range of latitude. her crop average is
fair and although the wheat crop Of last
year was reckoned almost a failure by
Dakota farmers, the statistics showed
her to be sixth in the list of wheat pro-
ducing states and territories, having
raised more than Wisconsin, Illinois,
Michigan, Ohio, Kansas or Missouri
and this years harvest, considered
merely a fair one, yields over 4O,0 ,O0C
bushels Of wheat and 100000 of corn,
The hay crop is the largest on record
and the grass unusually luxuriant. Oats
rye, barley and flax are above the aver.
age, while potatoes, beets, turnips and
almost every variety Of vegetables have
never before yielded SO large a return
to the grower, both in quantity and
quality. The crop report as furnished
the Commissioner Of Immigration from
twenty-four counties by one hundred
and thirty-seyen correspondents in an.
nexed-l00 being used as the standard
and the condition reckoned on tina,
scale. Several counties report 100
Many 90; but the averages given are
for the entire territory:
Wheat, 20 Barley, 68 Hav, 70
Corn, 90 Buckwheai, rs Vegetables, Sc
Rye, SO Flax, 70 Oats, IS
This official showing is Dakota's an.
swer to the charge of "rainless region
and the cry of drought.
The Black Hills district, comprising
six thousand square miles, the riches,
corner Of this great empire, possessing
as it does almost every variety Of min
eral and other resources, is as yet almost
unknown to the outside world. The
silver camps Of Carbonate and Galena
are but half prospected. Active opera
tions have begun in the tin mines, and
oil companies have organized for the
sinking of wells of petroleum in the
Wyoming Hills. where oil is found said
to be equal to Pennsylvania's best. Salt
of good quality is found in the same
locality. Add to these sources of wealth,
copper, mica, zinc, salt-peter, anthony,
iron, nickel, silver, gold and an mex
haustable supply of building material,
and who can doubt the fulfllment of the
anticipations that colossal fortunes will
be realized from the development of
such resources within the next few
years. Hard pine lumber, marble, sand.
stone and various beautiful building
stones may be had for the cutting and
quarrying, and lime, brick-clay and
gypsum are abundant enough to supply
buildino materials for all af orr cities for